Tembisa Hospital tender tycoon Vusimuzi Matlala – whose companies earned contracts worth some R5m that were red-flagged by Babita Deokaran and who is already under investigation for these – is now also under the spotlight for his illegal blue-lights cavalcade used for airport trips and school runs.
Matlala was linked to the hospital scandal via three companies he controls: Falcon Cat Trading and Suppliers, Black AK Trading and Suppliers, and Cor Kabeng Trading and Suppliers.
The entities were flagged by Deokaran in a report into “possibly fraudulent activity” at Tembisa Hospital and identified R850m in transactions she felt required further scrutiny. She was assassinated three weeks after filing it.
Close ties have been established between Matlala and Hangwani Morgan Maumela, the central node in an extraction syndicate of little-known companies and opaque trusts which saw R23m in dicey payments channelled their way, reports News24.
Matlala himself – through three companies in trade with the East Rand hospital – raked in his millions in just one month. Maumela is linked to Matlala through a once-shared interest in private security outfit called Cat VIP Protection.
Matlala’s partner Cordelia Kabeng, calling herself “mama cat”, boasted to her 12 000 Instagram followers about her high-speed escorts, replete with lights and sirens, to drop off her “cubs” at school.
Apart from access to lucrative Health Department contracts, CAT VIP had influence stretching into the uppermost ranks of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department.
Matlala’s EMPD links
News24 obtained a copy of an EMPD memorandum dated in October 2021, and signed by Julius Mkhwanazi – the then acting deputy commissioner.
The “letter of confirmation” stated that under his authority, metro cops have “an endless working relationship and MOU with CAT VIP to assist EMPD officers in any VIP protection and security services in and outside the city of Ekurhuleni”.
Mkhwanazi also lists seven cars, and their registration numbers, “that we work with”.
Three of these cars, positioned as those of the security company, are registered to the Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality fleet.
Ekurhuleni Metro spokesperson Zweli Dlamini confirmed the cars were assets registered on the municipality’s books, but could not say to which unit within the local government the cars had been allocated.
Mkhwanazi read but did not respond to questions asked by News24 asked regarding the legitimacy of the letter or under what authority it was granted.
The Instagram high life
One of the municipality’s cars surfaced in an Instagram video posted by Kabeng, thought to be Matlala’s partner.
The 2015 BMW 7 series G11 730d, licence plate JV 09 RT GP, appeared in a video published on 4 January last year showing Kabeng next to a charted light aircraft and black cars, with a caption, “Mama Cat n her fleet” (sic).News24 geolocated this footage to Pretoria’s Wonderboom airport.
Another undated video – shot from within a car – shows a vehicle fitted with blue dash lights weaving through traffic with siren blaring. Kabeng’s caption: “Blue lights… to drop of the Queen n her cubs” (sic).
A third shows a trailing escort car in her cavalcade fitted with blue lights, both on the dash and in the grill.
Companies and Intellectual Property Commission information shows Kabeng was the founding director of Cat VIP Protection in 2017. She resigned less than a month later, and control of the entity was briefly ceded to Maumela, and then Matlala.
Both Kabeng and Matlala share the same residential address in Mamelodi.
Matlala, security don
The security firm’s website says Matlala has “three decades of experience in … strict VIP Protection, intelligence and … innovative, with individually tailored solutions to exclusive profiled clients security needs”.
At 46, this means his experience in this sector began when he was 16.
EMPD spokesperson Kelebogile Thepa said that using blue lights and sirens was strictly governed by the Road Traffic Act, legislation which should put such out of Matlala’s reach.
Of the memo, she said the EMPD did not have “any formal relationship with this private firm”.
“It must be noted that EMPD will never issue any tools of trade to any private contractor that is for the sole use of law enforcement.”
Thepa said many elements of the letter appeared dubious, and its authenticity and how it was obtained will be established in an internal investigation.
“The memo has been referred to the Internal Affairs unit for an urgent investigation," she said.
Skeletons in the closet
News24 previously reported that Matlala has a criminal record for housebreaking, dating back to 2001, raising questions over how he was appointed as a company director, as a conviction is preclusive.
It would also be a preclusive in obtaining a licence to operate from the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA).
The deals Matlala scored from the Gauteng Department of Health will form part of a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into Tembisa Hospital.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Tembisa tender kingpins to face prosecution
Three companies score R100m contracts, latest Tembisa exposé shows
Tender tycoon scoops R36m from Tembisa in dubious dealings
Tembisa tender ‘big cheese’ linked to Ramaphosa’s family